5 ms·

When I left university I interviewed at a small company and a startup but in both cases they were just interviews for jobs I got through a recruitment consultan

When I left university I interviewed at a small company and a startup but in both cases they were just interviews for jobs I got through a recruitment consultant. That was all I knew of how to get a job. I think the problem is that recent graduates are unaware they could be doing anything other than looking at cwjobs and phoning a recruitment agency up. Possibly timing is an issue, right before or after final exams may catch students when getting a job is more top of mind? One other idea might be to organise some paid internships. If you have a large number of companies in willing to take interns on (point them to Joels 'smart and gets things done' if they want to see the benefits of getting smart people interested in their company before they leave education) then that may give the CS departments a reason to get undergraduates interested in a startup career. Good luck with the event this weekend, it looks fantastic.

ian 15y ago
Paid summer internships is a smart point. Many of the companies exhibiting at the event are keen to having summer tech interns, and perhaps if we packaged that up better we'd get more engagement from university tutors. Maybe we should create a listing of all the summer internships available as well. Thanks for a helpful idea.
- DonskiFarrell 15y ago
  I think this would create a lot of interest in the start-up area. As part of my course there was a compulsory 6-month placement in industry. Most of the students were blissfully unaware of the start-up opportunities available, especially when the big players were dangling large money incentives and holding big promotion events. Also, if you took a typical internship with a bank, etc, the chances are that you got offered a graduate job. This in itself would prevent a lot of the students looking further for other opportunities even if they were being promoted. The only time I even had a hint of the start-up world was the odd email from the career officer. (I actually remember the SongKick advert. I was really tempted to apply, even though you were just looking for a graduate position. In hindsight, I should have tried my luck :)) What would be useful in promoting the internships would be a start-up demo-day, where bunch of start-ups would come in and showcase their product/vision, development technologies, and any other 'cool stuff'. Edit: To clarify, rather that a start-up fair, where students stumble about, the demo-day would be contained in a lecture room with a proper presentation and QA session. These types of events were always packed in uni.
  - ian 15y ago
    Great feedback, thanks. I think some kind of on campus event is the next step and I love the idea of making it about product demos not standard booths.
- robinwarren 15y ago
  I just looked and workinstartups.com has an interns section. http://workinstartups.com/jobs/interns/ http://workinstartups.com/jobs/interns/ possibly you could work with them on this? They seem to be UK based/focused.

ian 15y ago

Paid summer internships is a smart point. Many of the companies exhibiting at the event are keen to having summer tech interns, and perhaps if we packaged that up better we'd get more engagement from university tutors. Maybe we should create a listing of all the summer internships available as well. Thanks for a helpful idea.

DonskiFarrell 15y ago
I think this would create a lot of interest in the start-up area. As part of my course there was a compulsory 6-month placement in industry. Most of the students were blissfully unaware of the start-up opportunities available, especially when the big players were dangling large money incentives and holding big promotion events. Also, if you took a typical internship with a bank, etc, the chances are that you got offered a graduate job. This in itself would prevent a lot of the students looking further for other opportunities even if they were being promoted. The only time I even had a hint of the start-up world was the odd email from the career officer. (I actually remember the SongKick advert. I was really tempted to apply, even though you were just looking for a graduate position. In hindsight, I should have tried my luck :)) What would be useful in promoting the internships would be a start-up demo-day, where bunch of start-ups would come in and showcase their product/vision, development technologies, and any other 'cool stuff'. Edit: To clarify, rather that a start-up fair, where students stumble about, the demo-day would be contained in a lecture room with a proper presentation and QA session. These types of events were always packed in uni.
- ian 15y ago
  Great feedback, thanks. I think some kind of on campus event is the next step and I love the idea of making it about product demos not standard booths.
robinwarren 15y ago
I just looked and workinstartups.com has an interns section. http://workinstartups.com/jobs/interns/ http://workinstartups.com/jobs/interns/ possibly you could work with them on this? They seem to be UK based/focused.